MURFREESBORO – The good news for Smyrna and Siegel fans is that neither team lost their District 7-AAA match Friday.

On the other hand, neither team won, either. The Bulldogs and Stars finished with a 1-1 tie.

Both goals were scored in the second half. The goalkeepers for both teams have several saves which looked at first like certain goals, but were stopped at the last second.

After a scoreless first half, Smyrna's Walter Lopez scored the first goal with 37:03 left on the clock.

He beat his defender, set in front of the goal, faked to the right and kicked it straight into the net past Siegel goalkeeper Trey Jernigan.

"It was a great individual effort," said Smyrna coach Brian Grogan. "At halftime we talked about these (wet field) conditions.

"If you get a chance to create your own space and put it on frame and see what happens, and he did that. He came back for the ball, created an opportunity, turned, hit it, and found the net. That was a great individual effort on his part."

The Stars tied it with 16:14 left when Grant Turner kicked it over Smyrna goalkeeper John Trent's head into the net.

The rest of the game was filled with fierce shot attempts by both teams, which the goalkeepers were there to stop.

"The ball skips a lot (on the wet field)," said Jernigan. "Sometimes it just stops, and you don't know why."

The wet field caused players to slip and fall and struggle to get good position throughout the game.

"I told the guys that it's the same for both teams, you've just got to fight through it," said Grogan. "It changes what we do just a little bit."

Jernigan had one save in particular in the corner of the net after a Smyrna header seemed headed for a score.

"He's one of the backbones of our defense," said Siegel coach Eric Shelton. "I think the defense had their hands full tonight, especially on a wet field.

"To react to the quickness of some of those Smyrna players is incredibly difficult."

On the other side of the field, Jernigan also had some saves to keep Siegel from scoring in the final minutes.

"I think all the district games are going to be incredibly tight," said Shelton. "One-goal games are going to be the norm going out.

"If somebody wins by more than two, something's happened."

The TSSAA allows districts to complete conference games to determine a winner. However, 7-AAA coaches have chosen to just end in ties.

"Save penalty kicks for the postseason," said Shelton. "Sometimes we work hard to get a tie, and that's all you deserve, really. It was a very equally fought match. To try to name a winner and a loser in this game would have been very difficult."